IDBI Mutual Fund revises exit load under Ultra Short Term Fund; NTPC may float another FPO next fiscal; JK Tyres to hike prices by up to 5% from January

IDBI Mutual Fund revises exit load under Ultra Short Term Fund

IDBI Mutual Fund has revised exit load structure under its scheme-IDBI Ultra Short Term Fund. As per the revision, scheme will not charge any exit load. Earlier, the scheme charged an exit load of 0.25% if investments are redeemed within seven days from the date of allotment. IDBI Ultra Short Term Fund is an open ended debt scheme with investment objective to provide investors with regular income for their investment. The scheme will endeavour to achieve this objective through an allocation of the investment corpus in a diversified portfolio of money market and debt instruments with maturity predominantly between a liquid fund and a short term fund while maintaining a portfolio risk profile similar to a liquid fund.

NTPC may float another FPO next fiscal

State-run power producer NTPC may approach the government next fiscal for permission to raise funds through a follow-on public offer (FPO) to part-finance power equipment purchases worth an estimated Rs1.5 trillion.

NTPC currently generates over 32,000MW of electricity per annum, but plans to ramp up capacity to 75,000MW by 2017.

For this purpose, it is expected to float a Rs1.5 trillion international competitive bidding tender to source the power equipment.

However, the stake to be divested by the government and the fresh equity to be offered under the FPO could not be ascertained, as the proposal is still at a nascent stage.

NTPC has already raised over Rs8,000 crore through its FPO in February 2010.

JK Tyres to hike prices by up to 5% from January

Tyre-maker, JK Tyre and Industries, plans to increase tyre prices by up to 5% from January next year to offset surging raw materials costs, especially natural rubber.

The price increase will apply to both car radial and truck tyres.

JK Tyre plans to double its capacity of commercial vehicle radial tyres to 1.6 million per annum from the present 8 lakh tyres per year by mid-next fiscal.

The company also plans to increase its passenger car radial tyre capacity to 5.5 million a year from the present 4.5 million by December next year.

The company plans to invest Rs1,500 crore to set up a new manufacturing plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu which is expected to start production by the third-quarter of next year.

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Coke’s advertising has improved a lot in recent times, with style and chutzpah in their commercials

The new Coke commercial with actor Imran Khan is quite cool. It employs the ancient trick of shadow play as a gimmick. Madhya Pradesh Tourism has in its recent advert also used this art form to highlight interesting destinations, sights, etc. The trick works there too, but Coke’s work is a bit superior because they have weaved in a little story in the shadow play. And that makes it more interesting.

The commercial casts the movie actor as a tired factory worker. Inside a cabin, he notices a man with a bottle of Coke. He only notices shadows, though. Exhausted and thirsty, and desperate for a drink, the worker uses his hands to create a shadow on the wall, and with that he tries to ‘grab’ the Coke bottle. But the owner of the drink takes it away in the nick of time.

The protagonist makes more such attempts with shadow play, but is unable to ‘get his hands’ on the bottle. Finally, the bottle disappears from sight. He gives up looking unhappy and disappointed. Then suddenly, he is joined by a woman, whose shadow he was watching. And who he had imagined to be a man because of her bob cut hair. Naturally, the worker is embarrassed but the girl isn’t.

In fact, she offers him her Coke. And probably herself too! So, yes, the chap gets the Coke and the gal. Cool! In the background plays a remixed track of an ancient filmy number, which has become a fad these days. Because lyricists aren’t able to think beyond badnaam Munni and besharam Sheela. So that’s understandable.

All in all, good stuff. Must say Coke’s advertising has improved a lot
in recent times, and they have been able to inject style and chutzpah
in their commercials. I also quite liked the earlier commercial with
Imran Khan and Kalki Koechlin in the bus—where they use hand
movements to ‘drink’ the Coke. And in this case, the use of shadow
play makes the ad charming and very watchable. Also, actor Imran Khan
is used well, and he plays to his core strengths. Unlike Pepsi, which
almost always struggles with its brand ambassador Ranbir Kapoor.

Yup, the ad lives up to all the fundamental principles of advertising:
It’s distinctive, product centric, stylish, refreshing and entertaining. Most critical for a product such as a cold drink, that’s nothing more than sweetened water and holds little value beyond some fun moments and its efficacy as a superb toilet cleaner.